HOME > BLOG
> Funding Health Care on the Backs of the Young
November 4, 2009
Funding Health Care on the Backs of the Young
As I was talking recently with the founder of a large American corporation, the conversation turned (inevitably) to health care reform. His employees in their 20s, on average, cost the company about $1,500 a year in health bills. Those in their 50s cost at least 10 times more. The effect of proposed health care reform -- which limits the ability of insurers to charge higher premiums for older adults -- would be, he said, a large shift of America's health care burden to the younger generation. This is not an unintended consequence of reform; it is the whole purpose. It is not a side effect; it is the main funding mechanism.
Precisely because younger people have lower health costs, reformers want to draft them into the broader health insurance system so their premiums can subsidize the health expenses of older, sicker health care consumers. Thus, in every version of health care reform, the young are required to purchase coverage, on penalty of an "excise tax."
posted by : Left Coast Conservative on November 4, 2009
Reader Comments: Submit Your Comment (0) | Permalink
